By Jim Sears, skyfarmersmarket.com
Thursday, May 1st, 2014 3:00 PM CST
Often when we talk about farming or growing something we use the term ‘circle of life’. Nature works its wonders regardless of how dry a Spring we have or how wet a Fall we experience. Workaday living does not always seem to have such a smooth inevitability. Well, it does sometimes. Bobby Groce has been farming the better part of his life. Even when he “dabbled” in other ventures, he always had his hands in the soil.
“When I was a kid, there was this little patch of ground where a house used to stand. I planted some pumpkins there and laid a stick by the vine. Every day after school, I’d check the growth of the vine against that stick.”
Bobby has about sixty acres in Barren County. He raises cattle, hay, a small plot of tobacco, and lots of farmers market products.
“I keep saying I’m going to slow down, but just last year I put in high tunnels.” The tunnels sit alongside his four greenhouses where he grows hanging flowers and vegetable starts. “I usually take off a couple of weeks in late October. We go to the mountains. Then it’s back at it.”
As a young man in the sixties, Bobby and his father truck farmed. “Back then, the folks with money didn’t buy from us—they thought supermarket food was better. We’d go into the neighborhoods and sell corn, tomatoes, and watermelons.”
One of the neighborhoods that they visited was Bowling Green’s Shake Rag. Funny how the circle completes itself—today the SKY Farmers Market sits right in the heart of Shake Rag.
“I ended up where I started.”
You can connect with the Groces on their Facebook page.
Also, find out more about The SKY Farmers Market via their facebook page!
